The comeback of boxing

Posted on 30 July 2018

New rules for future boxing

In 2005 Klitschko Foundation became one of the organizers, along with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Boxing Federation of Ukraine, a boxing tournament for the prizes of the Klichko brothers. For 19 years he has opened the way to professional boxing for youth athletes from 33 countries. For many of them, the tournament opened the way to the Olympic Games.

This year it woud be the XX anniversary Klitschko Tournament, intended to broadcast the Olympic values of sport: transparency, honest , openness. Unfortunately, problems in the world of boxing have affected us.

Last year, the Chief Executive of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) Ching-kuo Wu was suspended from his duties. Then the organization was virtually bankrupt, it appeared in corruption and bureaucratic scandals, it was accused of discrimination and abuse of personal interests. The doubts aroused the honesty of the judging both at the World Boxing Championships and the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stopped supporting the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA). Now the question remains boxing in the Olympic Games 2020 program in Tokyo.

In contrast to AIBA, the World Boxing Organization (WBA) has proposed:

Take care of the systemic development of boxing, amateur and professional, through the development of athletes, coaches and management
to deal with negative manifestations in boxing, namely bureaucracy, corruption and incompetence;
to form a new boxing image among athletes and fans.

Today, a new era of boxing begins with the World Boxing Association, which today becomes a professional and amateur boxing organization. To achieve these goals, the WBA invites all National Boxing Federation to join the initiative. This initiative was considered by the AIBA as inadmissible and caused a controversial response. Under these circumstances, we can not implement the Klitschko Prize Tournament under the auspices of AIBA, which was scheduled for September 10-16, 2018.

The following is a translation of the letter from the World Boxing Association:

The comeback of boxing

Boxing right now more than ever is rapidly moving away from enabling progress yet remaining one of the most followed sports of the 21st century. Nowadays it is losing credibility, fans and audience all over the World.

“Divide and conquer’ once used in politics and the military to destroy the enemy, is now term to best describe the state of boxing.

Unfortunately, boxing is completely divided: into personal interest by sanctioning bodies, promoters, managers, broadcasters, and not to mention amateur and professional organizations opposing each other in meaningles battles. All of these mentioned stakeholders look out for their own personal interest ignoring the two core components that make the sport: athletes and fans.

As boxing is going through its issues there's another huge threat looming on the horizon: it's negative public image, corruption, bureaucracy and continuing disfunction of all parties involved including amateurs and professionals the sport of Boxing. Now they might lose participation in the Olympics. If this absurd decision were to take place it would be an unprecedent setback for the sport. Boxing Gold Medalist like Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, J. Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, and others, are all examples of great fighters where Olympics helped launch their legendary careers.

If athletes, fans and officials do not stand up to defend Boxing with transparency and in an innovative approach, the consequences can be dramatic for the sport. It's time for action now! We need to restore confidence, unity and integrity in boxing.

Boxing does not need only pure decorative measures that are too little, too late, and does not need a new communication plan. The real need is an ambitious viable plan, a new alliance between those who are truly believe in it.

The purpose is a real altemative in order to save amateur boxing as the foundation of the sport and guarantee a better future for its athletes, fans, federations, officials and partners.

Time is short, and the boxing world is expecting a sustainable solution. The WBA, the oldest sanctioning body in the sport has been supporting the synergy in boxing. As you may now, in the latest PRO/AM Olympic Games in Rio we made an historic first step to unify professionals and amateurs in collaboration with the National Federations. The objective was to -enable and strengthen' boxing current state, to restore its attractive power among young people, men and women, athletes and fans, from all around the globe. For us, diversity, integrity and transparency, are more than words, they are essential values to restore the greatness of our noble art.

Perhaps many of you ask: How? Here is the answer.

We developed a 7-point general plan that's intended to achieve the following objectives:

Strengthen our values: Participative writing of the Universal Charter of Boxing, together with athletes, officials, federations and fans from all around the world in order to underline our values of universality, diversity, Respect, engagement and education.
Athlete's welfare : Provide educational tools. and health/life insurance so the athletes are able to fully focus on their careers, and later enjoy a sustainable future after retirement.
Simplify the structures: Offer a unique regulator, and an ultimate authority. There's a need to simplify with less bureaucracy, leveraging digital technologies to improve transparency, collaboration and efficiency
Professionalize the officials and trainers: Let's take care of those who care for the champions. give them scalable salaries, further their education and even develop a pension system.
Fans Empowerment: Turn them into real participants of the boxing world, share the passion and information but also strengthen the objectivity of decisions.
Digitalize the experience: Enable deeper insights, share exciting information and possibilities through a customized application.
Optimize the reach: Create one worldwide –pro/am.broadcasting channel, defined by regions, including subscriptions/PPV, OTT streaming facilities and its own production unit.

Thus, we invite you: National Federation, Athlete, official, trainer, and professional, who recognizes themselves in this initiative to engage in this movement. It is time to face the modern world and time to strive forward with the biggest comeback ever: "The comeback of boxing,"